Super Tooltip

Use it where a one-line tool tip is not enough to explain a command: what it does, what it affects, a preview, and where to find more help. Drop one component on a form, and every control on the form gains a set of "on superToolTip1" properties in the Properties window; in code, call the SetBinarySuperToolTip... methods with the control and the value.

The parts of a tip

• Title – SetBinarySuperToolTipTitleText, with an optional icon (SetBinarySuperToolTipTitleIcon, shown when SetBinarySuperToolTipDrawTitleIcon is on).
• Body – SetBinarySuperToolTipBodyText, with an optional picture at its left (SetBinarySuperToolTipBodyImage). Setting the body text is what turns the tip on for a control; a control with no body text shows no tip.
• Footer – SetBinarySuperToolTipFooterText, with an optional icon and a line above it (SetBinarySuperToolTipDrawLineSeparatingBodyAndFooterArea).

The tip is sized to fit these each time it opens, up to half the screen's working area each way, unless it is given a fixed size (SetBinarySuperToolTipUseCustomSizing, SetBinarySuperToolTipCustomSize).

Colours

Either choose one of the built-in ColorScheme values – a gradient from the scheme's colour to the window colour, with text and borders in the window text colour – or set the background (SetBinarySuperToolTipBackgroundDrawingStyle and its colours), the text colours and fonts, and the border yourself. To use a built-in scheme, set the background style to DrawingStyle.Gradient first.

Timing and custom drawing

When and for how long tips show is the standard ToolTip behaviour: ToolTip.InitialDelay, ToolTip.AutoPopDelay and the rest work as usual. AboutToPopup lets you cancel a tip as it opens, and HeaderDraw, BodyDraw and FooterDraw let you draw any region yourself.

A rich tip for a "Send invoice" button, in the built-in blue scheme.

using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using Binarymission.WinForms.Controls.Popups;

public class InvoiceForm : Form
{
    private readonly BinarySuperToolTip _tips = new BinarySuperToolTip();
    private readonly Button _send = new Button { Text = "Send", Location = new Point(16, 16) };

    public InvoiceForm()
    {
        Controls.Add(_send);

        _tips.InitialDelay = 600;
        _tips.AutoPopDelay = 15000;

        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipBackgroundDrawingStyle(_send, DrawingStyle.Gradient);
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipBuiltInColorScheme(_send, ColorScheme.Blue);

        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipTitleText(_send, "Send invoice");
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipTitleTextFont(_send, new Font("Segoe UI", 10f, FontStyle.Bold));
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipTitleIcon(_send, SystemIcons.Information);
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipDrawTitleIcon(_send, true);

        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipBodyText(_send,
            "Emails this invoice as a PDF to the customer's billing contact." + Environment.NewLine +
            "The invoice is then marked as sent and can no longer be edited.");

        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipFooterText(_send, "Press F1 for more help");
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipFooterIcon(_send, SystemIcons.Question);
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipDrawFooterIcon(_send, true);
        _tips.SetBinarySuperToolTipDrawLineSeparatingBodyAndFooterArea(_send, true);
    }
}